KIRKUS REVIEW

An account of one pilot’s experience in World War II that’s part biography
and part world history.

Debut author Snyder became an amateur historian following his retirement,
inspired by his father Howard’s participation in World War II as the captain
and pilot of a B-17 Flying Fortress bomber. Partly based on Howard Snyder’s
diaries, this book also includes interviews with his crewmates, weaving a
cohesive quilt of perspectives. The story begins with and centers on
Howard’s life, starting with his upbringing in Nebraska, and taking readers on
a tour of his marriage to Ruth, his enlistment, his time in pilot school, and
then a series of dangerous combat missions over German-occupied Europe.
However, the book is just as much about the war itself, and its grand
historical moment in time, as it is about Howard’s life. The author discusses
the horror and consequences of Pearl Harbor, the devastation and tactical
importance of D-day, and the Casablanca Conference, for example; he also
describes the lives of the soldiers themselves, such as how popular they were
with English women and how they used recreation to distract themselves from the
danger at hand: “Regardless, most men were able to keep a relatively detached
attitude, centered on self-survival and the common belief that it only happened
to someone else.” Even the dramatic culmination of the book, when Howard’s
plane is shot down over Belgium, is equally concerned with depicting Belgium as
it is Howard’s plight. This is a stark, welcome contrast to the current fashion
among literary renderings of war, which prefer to focus solipsistically on
characters’ interior lives. More than a third of the book is devoted to Howard’s
attempt to evade German forces after being shot down, when he was dependent on
the good graces of Belgium resistance forces. The author does an impressive job
letting the tale speak for itself, giving center stage to the words of the
soldiers and eschewing unnecessary dramatic embellishment. Although it breaks
no new historical ground, Snyder’s contribution is an excellent one that honors
both the personal and global effects of war.

A gripping story for readers in search of either drama or historical edification.

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